AI, but not...

I was on Pinterest to browse cool images for inspiration and I found this cool character design.
I found out it had been made with generative AI, but I still admire how cool it looked.
It sure did inspire me to get my paints and brushes, just like some pieces of real artists do.
In fact, many times, I do copy the work of other artists for study purposes, but I do not post those pieces, or if I do, I ask permission to the original artist first and, of course I will credit them as well.
For this case though, since someone generated the reference with AI and there was no real human copyright behind it, I will not ask permission and will not credit the OG creator.

I am curious to hear what the Artist community thinks about this practice:
- Do you use AI generated images to practice your artistic skills?
- Would you consider using AI generated imagery to give it your own artistic twist, make a piece of art and call it your own?

Thanks for reading this post and for sharing your thoughts and opinions :)